During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Prost formed a fierce rivalry with mainly Ayrton Senna, but also Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. In 1986, at the last race of the season, he managed to pip Mansell and Piquet of Williams to the title after Mansell retired late on in the race, and Piquet was pulled in for a late precautionary pit stop. Senna joined Prost at McLaren in 1988 and the two had a series of controversial clashes, including a collision at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix that gave Prost his third Drivers' Championship. A year later at the same venue they collided again, but this time Prost, driving for Ferrari, lost out. Before the end of a winless 1991 season Prost was fired by Ferrari for his public criticism of the team. After a sabbatical in 1992, Prost joined the Williams team, prompting reigning drivers' champion Mansell to leave for CART. With a competitive car, Prost won the 1993 championship but he retired at the end of the year rather than be teammates with Senna who signed for 1994 and face the animosities of 1989 and 1990 again.

Prost employed a smooth, relaxed style behind the wheel, deliberately modeling himself on personal heroes like Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark.[3] He was nicknamed "The Professor" for his intellectual approach to competition. Skilled at setting up his car for race conditions, Prost would often conserve his brakes and tyres early on in a race, leaving them fresher for a challenge at the end.[4]

Personal and early life

Alain Prost was born near the town of Saint-Chamond, close to the city of Saint-Etienne in the département of Loire, France, to André Prost and Marie-Rose Karatchian, born in France of Armenian descent.[5] Prost had one younger brother called Daniel, who died of cancer in September 1986.[6] Although short, Prost was an active, athletic child, who enthusiastically took part in diverse sports, including wrestling, roller skating and football. In doing so he broke his nose several times.[7] He considered careers as a gym instructor or a professional footballer before he discovered kart racing at the age of 14 while on a family holiday.[8] This new sport quickly became his career of choice.

Prost is married to Anne-Marie (born 14 February 1955). They have two sons, Nicolas (born 18 October 1981) and Sacha Prost (born 30 May 1990). Prost also has a daughter, Victoria. As of 2008, Nicolas races in the Euroseries 3000 championship for the Elk Motorsport team.[9] Prost lived in his hometown, Saint-Chamond, until he and his Renault team fell out in the early 1980s. In April 1983 the Prost family moved to Sainte-Croix, Switzerland and shortly after to Yens, Switzerland. They moved to Switzerland after Renault workers went to Prost's house in France and burned his Mercedes-Benz.[10] They lived there until November 1999, when they moved to Nyon in the same country.[11]

Driving career

Pre-Formula One

Prost won several karting championships in his teens. In 1974 he left school to become a full-time racer, supporting himself by tuning engines and becoming a kart distributor. His prize for winning the 1975 French senior karting championship was a season in French[12]Formula Renault,[13] a category in which he won the title and all but one race in 1976.

Prost went on to win the 1977 Formula Renault European championship before moving up to Formula Three (F3) in 1978. In 1979 he won both the French and European F3 championships, by which time he was on the shopping lists of several Formula One teams.[13] After carefully considering his options, he chose to sign with McLaren for 1980. He surprised the British team by declining their offer of a race drive in a third car at the final race of the 1979 season at Watkins Glen — reasoning that the token effort would benefit neither him or the team.[14]

Formula One

1980: McLaren

Prost began his career with McLaren (being run by Teddy Mayer) in 1980 alongside Ulsterman John Watson. On his debut in Buenos Aires he finished in sixth place earning one point, something achieved by only a handful of drivers. Prost added four more points to his tally during the season, scoring points at Interlagos, Brands Hatch and Zandvoort. Prost finished the year 15th in the drivers' championship, equalling points with former world champion Emerson Fittipaldi. Despite the encouraging debut season, Prost had several accidents, breaking his wrist during practice at Kyalami and suffering a concussion during practice at Watkins Glen. At the end of the season, despite having two years remaining on his contract, he left McLaren and signed with Renault. Prost has said that he left because of the large number of breakages on the car and because he felt the team blamed him for some of the accidents.[14]

1981–1983: Renault

Prost was partnered with fellow Frenchman René Arnoux for 1981. Motor sports author Nigel Roebuck reports that there were problems between Prost and Arnoux from the start of the season, Prost being immediately quicker than his more experienced teammate.[15] He did not finish the first two Grands Prix, due to collisions with Andrea de Cesaris in Long Beach and Siegfried Stohr in Jacarepaguá, but scored his first podium finish in Argentina. He retired in the next four races before winning his first Formula One race at his home Grand Prix in France, finishing two seconds ahead of his old teammate John Watson. For Prost, his debut victory was memorable mostly for the change it made in his mindset. "Before, you thought you could do it," he said. "Now you know you can."[16] Prost won two more races during the season, took his first pole position in Germany and finished on the podium every time he completed a race distance. He finished fifth in the drivers' championship, seven points behind champion Nelson Piquet.

1982

Prost won the first two Grands Prix of the 1982 season in South Africa, where Prost recovered from losing a wheel, and Brazil. He finished in the points on four other occasions, but did not win again. Despite retiring from seven races, Prost improved on his drivers' championship position, finishing in fourth, but with nine fewer points than the previous year. His relationship with Arnoux deteriorated further after the French Grand Prix. Prost believes that Arnoux, who won the race, went back on a pre-race agreement to support Prost during the race. His relationship with the French media was also poor. He has since commented that "When I went to Renault the journalists wrote good things about me, but by 1982 I had become the bad guy. I think, to be honest, I had made the mistake of winning! The French don't really like winners."[15]

1983

Prost's 1983 RenaultRE40, in which he came close to winning his first championship

Arnoux left Renault in 1983, and AmericanEddie Cheever replaced him as Prost's partner. Prost earned a further four victories for Renault during the season and finished second in the drivers' championship, two points behind Nelson Piquet. Piquet and the Brabham team overhauled Prost and Renault in the last few races of the season. Prost, who felt the team had been too conservative in developing the car, found himself increasingly at odds with Renault's management, who made him the scapegoat for failing to win a championship. In addition to that, the French fans recalled the bitter fight that had caused their favourite, Arnoux, to leave the team. Renault fired Prost only two days after the last race of the season. He re-signed for McLaren for the 1984 season within days and moved his family home to Switzerland.[15]

1984–1989: McLaren

1984

The Frenchman joined double world champion Niki Lauda at McLaren (now being run by Ron Dennis) in 1984, driving the McLaren MP4/2 using TAG-Porsche engines. He lost the world championship to Lauda in the final race by half a point, despite winning seven races to Lauda's five. The half point came from the Monaco Grand Prix, where Prost had been leading, albeit with Ayrton Senna and Stefan Bellof closing on him rapidly, when officials stopped the race at half distance due to heavy rain, which was controversial as the red flag was produced as Senna overtook Prost. Under Formula One regulations, Prost received only half of the nine points normally awarded for a victory.[17]

Niki Lauda retired for good at the end of 1985, and was replaced at McLaren by 1982 Champion Keke Rosberg for 1986. Prost successfully defended his title, despite his car struggling against the Honda-powered Williams cars driven by Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell, possibly due to the in-fighting at Williams.[19] Until the latter stages of the final race of the 1986 season, the Australian Grand Prix, Prost appeared set to finish second in the Championship, behind Mansell. Prost had the same amount of wins as Piquet, but he had four second places to Piquet's three, thus placing him second before the final race. While running third behind Piquet and Prost (all he needed to win the title), Mansell suffered a tyre failure at high speed, and crashed out. The Williams team called his teammate Piquet in to change tyres as a safety precaution, handing the race victory — and Championship — to Prost, who had already pitted. Another memorable race that year for Prost was at the San Marino Grand Prix. He was cruising to victory when his car began to run out of fuel three corners from the chequered flag. Frantically weaving the car back and forth to slosh the last drops of fuel into the pickup, he managed to keep it running just long enough to creep over the line and win the race. It happened again at the German Grand Prix: while running in fourth position, Prost's car ran out of fuel on the finishing straight of the last lap. Instead of retiring, Prost got out of his car and tried to push it to the finish, to great applause from the crowd. The finish line was too far, though, and he never reached it. He was classified sixth in the race, as the seventh-placed car was a lap behind.[20]

1987

With Rosberg retiring from Formula One at the end of 1986 season, Stefan Johansson filled the McLaren seat alongside Prost for the 1987 season. Even though Prost was driving a by now outclassed McLaren, he challenged Piquet and Mansell almost until the end, winning three races and breaking Jackie Stewart's record for race victories by winning for the 28th time. Prost considers the Brazilian Grand Prix as his best and most rewarding race ever. The Williams-Hondas had been dominant during qualifying, and Prost started fifth on the grid. He had worked on his race set-up, and with everyone else going for a high-downforce set-up, the Frenchman went the other way. The set-up meant less tyre wear, thanks to slower speeds in the corners while going fast down the straights. Only one stop was necessary, and Prost won the race by 40 seconds.

“

When you win a race like this the feeling is very, very good. There have been times when I have been flat-out to finish sixth, but you can't see that from the outside. In 1980 I finished three or four times in seventh place. I pushed like mad, yet everyone was gathered around the winner and they were thinking that I was just trundling around. But that's motor racing. So in fact the only thing you can judge in this sport is the long term. You can judge a career or a season, but not one race.

Despite Nelson Piquet winning the Drivers' Championship and Williams winning the Constructors' Championship, Honda decided not to supply the team with their engines due to their refusal to hire a Japanese driver, and instead supplied the McLaren team for 1988. Prost had convinced Ron Dennis to sign Senna to a three-year contract, which played a role in luring Honda. However, this began the rivalry that pushed two of the sport's greatest drivers to unprecedented heights of success and controversy. McLaren-Honda dominated the season, winning 15 out of 16 races. Prost finished first or second in every race other than his two retirements at Silverstone and Monza. He won seven and outscored his new teammate Ayrton Senna by 11 points, despite Senna winning one more race than Prost. However, only the 11 best results from the season counted toward the championship total, and this gave Senna the title by three points. Prost went on to be a proponent of essentially the 90's scoring system – all results counting to the final results with the winner scoring 10, not 9, points.

1989

McLaren's domination continued throughout 1989, and the Prost-Senna struggle for supremacy put them on a collision course. Mutual admiration turned to all-out hatred, with the Frenchman accusing his Brazilian teammate of "dangerous driving"[21] and of receiving more than a fair share of attention from both McLaren and Honda. Prost was accused of being in the pocket of FISA's French president Jean-Marie Balestre. Their embittered season ended as many pundits had feared. In the Japanese Grand Prix at the end of lap 46, Senna made his move at the chicane. Prost turned into his teammate's path. The two interlocked McLarens slid up the chicane escape road. Prost, thinking the World Championship was over, climbed out of his car. To separate the cars, the marshals pushed Senna's McLaren backwards onto the track. This left it in a dangerous position, so they pushed it forwards again. As they did so, Senna bump-started the engine. He drove through the chicane and rejoined. The nose of his car was damaged and he had to pit, but he rejoined only five seconds behind Alessandro Nannini. On lap 50, Ayrton sliced past Nannini at the chicane to take the lead and won the race. But it was Nannini who appeared on the top step of the podium. Race officials had excluded Senna for missing the chicane. McLaren appealed the decision, but the FIA Court of Appeal not only upheld the decision but fined Senna US$100,000 and gave him a suspended six-month ban.[22] Thus Prost clinched his third driving title in controversial circumstances.

However, Prost had the firm belief that Honda and Ron Dennis viewed Senna as the future of the team. Prost recalled that by Monza he had one car with maybe four or five mechanics, while his teammate had two cars and 20 people around him.[23] As a result, Prost announced in July 1989 that he would depart from McLaren and the Frenchman quickly joined his new employers: Ferrari.

1990–1991: Ferrari

The Frenchman replaced Gerhard Berger at Ferrari and was partnered with Britain's Nigel Mansell for 1990. As reigning world champion, Prost took over as the team's lead driver and was said to have played on Mansell's inferiority complex. Mansell recalls one incident where at the 1990 British Grand Prix, the car he drove didn't handle the same as in the previous race where had taken pole position, and later found out from team mechanics that Prost saw Mansell as having a superior car and had them swapped without Mansell knowing.[24] Prost won five races for Ferrari that year, in Brazil, Mexico, France, Britain and Spain. Notable among these was the Mexican Grand Prix, where he won after starting in 13th position. In both the Mexican and Spanish races, he led Mansell to Ferrari 1–2 finishes. The championship once again came to the penultimate round of the season in Japan with Prost trailing his McLaren adversary, Ayrton Senna, by nine points. As in 1989, a controversial collision between the two settled the race. At the first corner Senna, as he later admitted, intentionally drove his race car into Prost's, taking them both out of the race and sealing the title in his favour.[25] "What he did was disgusting," Prost said. "He is a man without value."[16] Prost finished the season seven points behind Senna, and his Ferrari team were runners-up to McLaren.

In 1991, Mansell left the Scuderia, due to his unstable relationship with Prost,[26] to join his previous employers, Williams for 1991. Mansell's replacement was Frenchman Jean Alesi, who had been impressive during the previous two years at Tyrrell. Ferrari had entered a downturn, partially as their famous V12 engine was no longer competitive against the smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient V10s of their competitors. The Ferrari chassis, despite a major revision by the French Grand Prix (F-643) was also not up to the level of the McLaren and the Williams models. Prost won no races, only getting onto the podium five times. He took it out on the Italian team, publicly criticising them (at the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix he famously described his car's handling worse than "a truck"),[27] and was fired prior to the end of the season, right before the Australian Grand Prix.[28] Prost was replaced by Italian driver Gianni Morbidelli for the final race of the 1991 season, and by another one, Ivan Capelli for the next season.

1993: Williams

Prost went onto a sabbatical year in 1992,[29] which was dominated by Nigel Mansell in a Williams-Renault. After hearing that Prost would be his teammate again in 1993, Mansell left Williams to race in the CART series. The Frenchman had a clause in his contract which prevented rival Ayrton Senna from joining the team that year.[30] Prost was part of a new-look driver line-up at Williams, with test driver Damon Hill coming in to replace Riccardo Patrese, who had left to join Benetton.

Prost won his fourth, and final, title, but in a year where he was regularly challenged by teammate Hill, and Ayrton Senna driving an inferior McLaren. Shortly before the Portuguese Grand Prix in October 1993, Prost announced he would not defend his world title, as the clause in the Frenchman's contract did not extend to 1994 and Senna would be able to join Williams for the upcoming season,[30] and instead opted to retire as the driver with the record for most grand prix victories[31] — a record which stood for almost a decade. On the podium in Adelaide in 1993, Prost's last race, he and Senna embraced, and it was as if — now that Prost was no longer a rival — Senna saw no reason for any more hostility. Prost was surprised by the gesture.[32] Prost's performances earned him an OBE.

GermanMichael Schumacher broke Prost's record of 51 Grand Prix wins during the 2001 season. However, the Frenchman still holds the records for the most Grand Prix starts in turbo powered cars (126), and most wins at home Grand Prix (six at the French Grand Prix). He is also thus far the most recent Frenchman to win his home Grand Prix.

Rivalry with Ayrton Senna

Prost's battles with Ayrton Senna were particularly notable. The rivalry originated in 1988, when Senna joined Prost at the McLaren team. The most notable event during the season between the two occurred during the Portuguese Grand Prix, where Senna tried to block Prost from taking the lead by forcing the Frenchman to run close to the pitwall; Prost managed to edge Senna outwards, taking the lead as they went into the first corner but he remained angered by the Brazilian's dangerous manoeuvre.[33]

The rivalry intensified after the 1989 San Marino Grand Prix, where the two drivers had an agreement that neither would get in each other's way to the first corner (cf.1982 San Marino Grand Prix). At the start, Senna got away in the lead and Prost followed him through the first corner without getting in Senna's way. Gerhard Berger's crash on lap four stopped the race. At the restart, it was Prost this time that got away the better of the two; but Senna forced his way past Prost in the first corner, breaking the pair's agreement at the start of the race, leaving the Frenchman furious with Senna.[34] Prost himself was angered by McLaren apparently favouring Senna because of Senna's better relationship with Honda, so he announced his signing with Ferrari during midseason.

The rivalry then reached its peak at the end of 1989, when the title was to be decided between Senna and Prost at Suzuka. The two McLarens collided at the Casio Triangle chicane when Prost blocked an attempted pass by Senna. Prost walked away while Senna returned to the track by illegally cutting the chicane. Though he went on to win the race, the manœuvre resulted in his disqualification. After an unsuccessful appeal by McLaren, the Brazilian received a further US$100,000 fine and a six month suspension, leading Senna to accuse FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre of favoring the Frenchman. Senna's disqualification meant that it was mathematically impossible for him to overhaul Prost's points total, and so the 1989 Championship went to the Frenchman. There has been much debate as to whether Prost intentionally ran into Senna, whether Senna was overambitious in his overtaking manoeuver, or whether the collision was simply a racing incident between two team-mates who were embittered with each other.

1990 saw the two drivers collide again. Senna led Prost, now in a Ferrari, in the world drivers' championship. Prost had qualified second for the penultimate race of the season in Suzuka, Japan, and Senna was on pole. Prior to the race Senna had complained that his side of the grid was dirty, meaning he would get less grip and therefore a slower start compared to Prost who was on the clean side of the grid. The Brazilian's appeal was rejected.[35] At the start of the race, Prost got the better start of the two; but whilst braking for the first corner, Senna refused to back off and collided with Prost at 160 mph (260 km/h), clinching the title for the Brazilian.[36] Prost almost retired from the sport, saying "What he did was disgusting. He is a man without value."[16] A year later, Senna admitted that the move was premeditated, in retaliation for Prost taking the two out of the race at the chicane on the same course the previous year when in a similar position.[25]

There was one controversial incident in 1991, Prost's inferior Ferrari was unable to put up a challenge regularly to Senna's frontrunning McLaren. At the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Prost battled Senna for 4th place, however he felt Senna defended too aggressively and at the first chicane forced Prost to take avoiding action by using the escape road. Prost stalled his car rejoining the race. Ironically, Senna ran out of fuel on the last lap at the very same point.

The Frenchman took a sabbatical in 1992 while the Brazilian struggled as McLaren was no longer competitive with Williams. Prost announced his signing with Williams for the upcoming 1993 season. Senna had wanted to join Williams too, as they were the most competitive, but Prost had a clause in his contract forbidding the Brazilian as a teammate and an infuriated Senna called the Frenchman a coward during a press conference at Estoril.

During the 1993 season, Prost and Senna continued their on-track rivalry. Prost was escorted by police to the Interlagos circuit for the 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix due to the hostility of Brazilians towards him.[37] The two continued their on-track battles at Silverstone where Senna aggressively defended his position against Prost. At Prost's last Grand Prix, the 1993 Australian Grand Prix, he was pulled up by Senna onto the top step of the podium for an embrace.[38]

On 1 May 1994, Ayrton Senna was killed during the San Marino Grand Prix. Prost was a pallbearer at the Brazilian's funeral.[39] Speaking four years after the Brazilian's death, Prost told Nigel Roebuck that he had "always refused to speak about him." When Senna died, Prost stated that "a part of himself had died also", because their careers had been so bound together.[40] Senna had also felt the same when Prost had retired at the end of 1993, when he admitted to a close friend that he had realised how much of his motivation had come from fighting with Prost. Only a couple of days before his death, when filming an in-car lap of Imola for French television channel TF1, he greeted Prost, by then a pundit on the channel: "A special hello to my,.. to our dear friend Alain. We all miss you Alain." Prost said that he was amazed and very touched by that comment.[41]

Comparison with team-mates

During the course of his career, season-by-season Prost beat nearly all his team-mates on total points, including five World Champions. The only exceptions were in 1984 when Niki Lauda won by half a point, and in Prost's first F1 season, when he was beaten by John Watson. In 1988, although Prost scored more points in total than his team-mate Ayrton Senna, only the best eleven of sixteen results counted towards the championship, which Senna won.

Helmet

Alain Prost's racing overalls for the 1993 season.

Prost uses a helmet design based on the three colours of the French flag, those being blue, white and red, along with his name along the side. During his early career however, Prost used a basic design of white all over with some blue detail around the visor.[42] Prost's original inspiration for the shape of the blue around his visor was a take on the Ecole de Pilotage Elf-Winfield logo.[citation needed] During Prost's time at Renault, he used more blue details, most notably around the rear of his helmet. Prost's helmet changed in 1985, as his helmet now had the blue detail around the front, surrounding the visor.[43] Prost kept a similar design for his entry at Ferrari and Williams.

Later life

During 1994 and 1995, Prost worked as TV pundit for the French TV channel TF1.[44] He also worked for Renault as a PR man.[44] Prost went back to his old team McLaren, working as a technical advisor; he also completed L'Etape du Tour, an annual mass-participation bike ride that takes place on a stage of the Tour de France.[44] Although not an official race, riders fight hard for places; Prost finished 12th in his category, 42nd overall out of over 5000 riders.[44]

Prost Grand Prix

During 1989 Prost began to contemplate starting his own team, as his relationship with his McLaren teammate, Ayrton Senna, had turned sour. Prost and John Barnard, formerly chief designer at McLaren, came close to founding a team in 1990; but a lack of sponsorship meant that this was not possible, so Prost moved to Ferrari. After falling out with the Italian team at the end of 1991, Prost found himself without a drive for 1992; after the failure of extensive negotiations with Guy Ligier about buying his Ligier team, Prost decided to join Williams for 1993.[45] In 1995, when Prost was working for Renault, people began to assume that a Prost-Renault team would be formed in the near future. Renault refused Prost's request to supply engines for his team, ending the speculation.[45]

On 13 February 1997, Prost bought the Ligier team from Flavio Briatore and renamed it "Prost Grand Prix".[46] The day after he bought the team, Prost signed a three-year deal with French car manufacturer Peugeot, who would supply the team with engines for the 1998 season through the 2000 season.[46] For the team's first season, Prost kept one of Ligier's 1996 drivers, Olivier Panis, who had won the Monaco Grand Prix the previous year; Japanese driver Shinji Nakano was signed to partner Panis. The team raced with the Mugen-Honda engines used by Ligier the previous season. Things looked promising at the start of the season, as the team picked up two points on its Grand Prix debut in Australia when Olivier Panis finished fifth. The team scored a further 13 points before Panis broke his leg in an accident during the Canadian Grand Prix. He was replaced by Minardi's Jarno Trulli. From there, things started to go downhill slightly, the team scored only five points during Panis' recovery. The Frenchman came back at the end of the season to race the final three Grand Prix. Prost GP finished sixth in the constructors' championship in its first season, with 21 points.

Prost became the president of Prost Grand Prix at the start of 1998. With Peugeot supplying the engines for Prost GP, Mugen-Honda decided to supply the Jordan team. Prost GP scored a single point during the season, Jarno Trulli finishing sixth in Belgium.

1999 was a crucial year for Prost GP.[47] Prost hired John Barnard as a technical consultant,[46] Barnard's B3 Technologies company helping Loic Bigois and the design of the AP02. Panis and Trulli agreed to stay on with the team for the season. While the car did not prove to be a major concern, the Peugeot engine proved to be heavy and unreliable.

Peugeot's final year as Prost's engine supplier in 2000 saw some optimism, Prost hiring his 1991 Ferrari team mate Jean Alesi to drive the lead car and GermanNick Heidfeld, who had won the 1999Formula 3000 championship, to partner him. The season proved to be yet another disastrous one, with the AP03 proving to be unreliable and ill handling. Things weren't helped when both drivers collided with each other in the Austrian Grand Prix. Newly hired technical director Alan Jenkins fired midway through the year. Prost restructured the team, hiring Joan Villadelprat as the managing director and replacing Jenkins with Henri Durand as the team's new technical director.[46]

2001 saw some much needed optimism for the team as Ferrari agreed to be the team's engine supplier for the season, the team now moving in the right direction.[46] But the money ran out at the start of the 2002 season and Prost was out of business, leaving debts of around $30 million.[46]

After Prost Grand Prix

During 2002, Prost spent time with his family and competed in eight bicycle races, finishing third in the Granite – Mont Lozère.[48] The Frenchman raced in the Andros ice race series in 2003, finishing second in the championship behind Yvan Muller;[49] he also became an Ambassador for Uniroyal, a position he would keep until May 2006.[44]

Prost continued to compete in the Andros Trophy, winning the title with Toyota in 2006/07 and 2007/08.[50][51][52]